Second, we need unwavering faith in Guru Heruka and Vajrayogini. Once again, the Christians basically got it right. They say if faithful practitioners remember Jesus at the time of death, they will be reborn in heaven. We essentially say the same thing, except we try remember Guru Heruka or Vajrayogini with a mind of faith at the time of death. Why is this important? To reach the pure land, pure karma must be activated at the time of our death. Negative minds activate negative karma, leading to lower rebirth. Positive minds activate positive karma, leading to upper rebirth. Pure minds activate pure karma leading to a pure rebirth. Just as merely seeing a Buddha image creates pure karma regardless of our motivation, so too remembering Guru Heruka or Vajrayogini with a mind of faith at the time of our death activates pure karma on our mind. Our mind of faith opens up our mind to be able to receive the sun-like blessings of our guru, which then enter our mind and activate the karmic seeds to take rebirth in the pure land. Buddhas attained enlightenment to guide living beings out of samsara. We can be certain our remembering them at the time of our death will invite them all to accompany us through death and to the pure land. Doing so is why they attained enlightenment in the first place. They then take us by the hand and lead us to their home.

Third, we need sufficient merit. Nothing can happen without first creating its cause. Every action has four karmic effects, one of which is the ripened effect. The ripened effect is the substantial cause of a future rebirth. Once again, negative ripened effects result in lower rebirth, positive ripened effects result in upper rebirth, and pure ripened effects result in a pure rebirth. If we do not have pure karma on our mind, we will not be able to take rebirth in the pure land. Therefore, we need to accumulate a vast reserve of pure karma so there is lots of material on our mind that the Buddhas can bless. How do we create such pure karma? There are many different ways, but they all come down to connecting with something that exists outside of samsara. Seeing an image of a Buddha creates pure karma because Buddhas exist outside of samsara. Relying upon the spiritual guide creates pure karma because he is a portal connecting our mind to all of the pure lands. Engaging in actions motivated by renunciation or bodhichitta create pure karma because the final intention of the action is beyond samsara. Making mandala offerings or self-generating as our highest yoga tantra deity create pure karma because we are quite literally creating pure worlds with our mind. Geshe-la teaches in multiple places that making mandala offerings is the most effective way of creating the karma to be able to take rebirth in a pure land. This makes sense because generating a mandala is a mental action of generating a pure land, and offering it to our Spiritual Guide invests that merit in the portal out. The practice of self-generation itself is, for all practical purposes, a mandala offering, the only difference is the basis of the offering is ourself transformed into the pure land.

Finally, we need to use our life to train in how to die. Just as water consistently flowing can eventually create grand canyons, so too our persistent training in how to die and take a controlled rebirth in the pure land will carve within our mind a spiritual Grand Canyon leading all of the waters of our mental continuum inexorably to the pure land when we die. There are three things in particular we should do. First, is practice the yoga of sleeping every time we go to bed. Falling asleep and dying are very similar processes, so as we fall asleep we should strongly believe we are now going to die, generate the compassionate wish to take rebirth in the pure land so we can complete our training, engage in the yoga of sleeping, and then fall asleep with that mind. By gaining familiarity with this every night, we will know exactly what we need to do at death. Second, we should train in the three bringings of generation stage. The three bringings are really a method of self-powa of exactly what we need to do at the time of our death to take rebirth in the pure land. We are essentially practicing how to die and take rebirth in the pure land. Third, we should practice powa for others every opportunity we get. Doing powa for others not only creates the karma to take rebirth in the pure land ourselves, it also creates the karma for others to do powa for us. And let’s be honest, we will need all the prayers we can get. If we do these three – yoga of sleeping, three bringings, and powa for others – throughout our life, when death comes we will be ready.

Through almost impossibly good karma, we have encountered these methods through which we can guarantee our eventual enlightenment. Perhaps we doubt we can complete all the grounds and paths in this life, but it is not hard to understand how it is doable to attain the pure land. If we attain the pure land, we can complete the rest of our training. We have the opportunity and we have the methods. What more important thing could there possibly be for us to do with our life?